grey dirt?

[kemosabi]

Im new to panning. I have recently been digging a hole in a dry creek bed. I have dug thru about 1 foot of sand and 3 feet of thick grey dirt. After that I hit a layer hard packed gravel with a rust color dirt. But all I am panning out is a fine powder gold.
I just bought a gold n sand hand dregde. Is it worth filling filling the hole with water and sucking it?
Any advice?

 

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[goldfeva]

Hey. I'm in Cherokee county SC too. I don't know much about panning but we should get together sometime.

 

[AlwaysBusyJ]

Are you digging by hand? Sounds like a ton of work digging down over four feet for a small amount of fines. Unless it's really good stuff I would try sampling more areas and hopefully you can find something good closer to the surface. But it can't hurt to try filling it up if you think it would speed things up. The more material you move the better chances you have of getting more gold. So if you find something closer to the surface you can spend more time processing gold bearing dirt and less time wasting energy just trying to get to it. Now if you have machinery that lets you get that far down quickly than go for it. I'm too lazy to dig more than a foot or two usually. I'd spend a little more time testing to find the best spot before spending too much energy in one place.

Also it depends on how hard it is to bring water to the location, if it's easily available then it can't hurt to try it!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kemosabi - yes, dump in some water, give it a few minutes to soak in and then start sucking! Once you get he water sucked up, pour the water back in the hole and go again! That mineralized layer sounds interesting. How about some pics?